


Listening Ear; Prince

by MilayaMilenZeal



Series: Listening Ear [2]
Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Chatting buddies, Fishing buddies, M/M, Random kitty
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-09
Updated: 2018-02-09
Packaged: 2019-03-15 19:03:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,287
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13619739
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MilayaMilenZeal/pseuds/MilayaMilenZeal
Summary: Sometimes, people just need someone from outside their circle of friends who will listen to their problems… the same goes for the two most stubborn people in existence, when the oldest gets a bit annoyed with his friends.





	Listening Ear; Prince

Noct’s never really given much thought to his future before. It was inevitable, sure, but Noct’s always been the type of guy to let things happen as they come. Planning ahead wasn’t among the things he wished to do on a daily basis… mainly because it forced him to think about his father’s condition.

But if there’s one thing he’s _never_ thought of until that day, it was _kids_.

By the Astrals, how they even arrived at _that_ subject, he’s not entirely sure of anymore, but it happened, and there’d been no getting out of it… in time, anyway.

Prompto had made some off-hand comment about Luna, or something, he doesn’t remember that well, because the following conversation had taken up far more of his memory than the initial jump into it. And then… oh yeah, _Gladio_ had joked that by this time five years from now, Noct would have an army of “mini-me’s”, so to speak…

And somehow that concept had been… he’s not sure what feelings that had brought up, but he didn’t like it.

Which is why he’s out here, in his casual garb, hunting down dinner by the waterside.

And _still_ he’s thinking about it.

Kids had never seemed like something Noct would have to consider for a long time back when he was 12, or even when he was in high school, because hell, what kid _does_ think of the day when they’ll be a parent of their own _that_ early? As he thinks on that a little better though, he realizes something;  royals do.

For any royal family – including his own – producing an heir to continue the legacy was one of the most important things to keep in mind. Hell, it was _expected_ for a royal to have at  least one heir, so as to continue the family and to ensure that all their hard work was not thrown to waste. So if you were royalty and you didn’t feel like having kids? Well, you were shit outta luck.

Noct is sure about one thing though; he’d make a lousy parent for sure. Prom would do _swell_ , he’s pretty sure, but Noct? Hell no.

That’s not to say he doesn’t like kids; they’re pretty cute, sometimes, and it’s entertaining to watch them run around and just… have fun. But Noct’s pretty sure he would do pretty horrible as a parent. He doesn’t have a lot of good role models to go off of, and while his father was far from a terrible parent, he’d been King of Lucis first and foremost, and _then_ he was Noct’s father. What kind of example was that for a child?

He’s far from ungrateful, don’t misunderstand, but there are time he wishes that… his father could’ve been there a little more for him. Done some more things with him… just… you know, hang out? If he ever _did_ have kids, that would be one of the first things he’d set straight; he wants to be a father that his children could be proud of… if that ever happened.

As things are looking now, it’d be a miracle if his marriage to Luna even happened at all.

Suddenly, there’s a familiar bark and Noct blinks and looks over as a familiar black dog toddles on over.

“Ah, Umbra,” he says with a slight laugh as the dog settles next to him with a bark. He sets his rod aside, and moves over to Umbra’s bandana, and he’s a bit surprised when he doesn’t find the telltale book he usually carries. “…hm? No message from Luna? Then what brings you here?”

“Is he your dog, Mister?” a small voice suddenly asks, and it makes Noct look up curiously. Standing there, was a small girl – young teen, maybe… possibly about 12 years old – with messy, windswept black hair that was coming undone from a ponytail at the back of her head. She’s wearing some easy beige shorts and a white shirt that looks _way_ too big on her. “You should teach him not to pull on people’s pants.”

Those words make Noct stare at her in surprise. “He did what…? Umbra, what was that for?” he asks of Umbra as he makes the dog look at him by putting both hands to the side of his muzzle. “You shouldn’t bother strangers like that. Go apologize.”

Noct isn’t surprised when Umbra gives a whine and then walks to the girl, and when he reaches her, he lowers his head with another whine. The girl smiles at the obvious apology and then pats his head softly. Glad that his apology was accepted, Umbra immediately perks up with a happy bark, before he moves back to Noct’s side.

However, just as Noct’s about to go for his rod again, the girl speaks up again.

“Is this a good spot?” she asks, and when Noctis looks at her oddly, she holds up a bucket, a box, and a fishing rod. “To fish,” she clarifies.

Noctis doesn’t often stare in surprise, because staring is impolite, but he won’t deny that he’s staring now. “Wait… You fish?!”

“Uh-huh!”

 

Noct invites her to come over and share his spot, and she’s very happy to accept. They spend the first ten to fifteen minutes talking about the fish that are around the area and exchanging tips and tricks to get the best catches. Noct doesn’t offer his name just yet, and the little girl doesn’t offer hers, either, but he’s not annoyed by that. In fact, he prefers it as such; it allows him to stay a little incognito, even though this girl might not be old enough yet to realize _who_ he is. For now, he’s just content to sit there with her, fishing and just enjoying each other’s companionship.

However, when he catches her throwing out another lure, in a very particular way, he thinks to ask a more personal question. “Who taught you to fish?”

She blinks and then shrugs. “No one. I taught myself!”

“Really? That’s impressive.”

“Thanks! So who taught you?”

“Well, I had a teacher show me the basics, but I mostly do my own thing anyway.”

“Cool!”

With that said, they start talking about fishing once again, and Noctis can’t help but feel very at ease with this little girl. He’s never been that good when it comes to children before, and the best experience he has with anyone younger would be his first meeting with Iris, but even that doesn’t account for much. And yet, somehow, he feels he’s doing alright with her.

Maybe he’s _not_ so hopeless around kids…

“ _Owie!_ ”

“You okay?”

“Uh-huh… I just… uh…”

When she stops talking, Noctis immediately grows worried and he doesn’t understand why. He doesn’t really know her, after all, so why would he be worried for her now?

“Let me see… oh sh—s-shoot,” he says, and he commends himself for actually curbing his own language for the girl. Last thing he wants is to teach her words she shouldn’t be saying at her age. “Here, let me help you.”

He reaches over for her hand, and she lets him with a small, poorly masked whimper as he starts to try and remove the hook she accidentally stuck in her finger. He knows the pain of _that_ , and it’s not pleasant to get it out, but he likes to believe he managed to get it out okay as he sits back, finally.

“There. Gone.”

She smiles as he sets aside her lure and dabs at her wound with a handkerchief he pulled out from somewhere. He can tell from one look on her face that the pain’s gone as she clenches and unclenches her hand, and he almost sighs in relief. He knows the feel of having a hook stuck in your finger, and knows how painful it can be to try and get it out, so he’s glad he was able to help without causing any further harm.

After she’s put the lure on the line (properly, this time) and has tossed it out, Noctis smiles as he fixes his own lure. Then, when done with that, he casts his own line out, watching it land in the water with a soft plop of its own. And as it bobs along the water, well out of the way of the girl’s lure, he allows himself to relax fully once again.

Silence settles over them then, and the only sound that fills it is that of the sea’s gentle roar of the waves as they strike the rocks below their feet. It’s, in a single world, pleasant, and neither of the two feel the need to speak to the other. They merely sit there and watch their lures as they bob, occasionally reeling it in a bit in an attempt to tempt the fish into a bite. The little girl catches the first fish, and Noctis catches one almost immediately after.

Noctis smiles at the little girl’s giggling when she took note of the actual size of her catch. While Noct did have to help her haul it up, she did everything herself, and he can see her beaming with pride. As she tucks the fish into her bucket, where it takes up most of its contents, she takes a little longer to watch the fish. He doesn’t mind; it’s a pretty big fish for a girl her size, so he figures she must be feeling extremely proud about having been able to catch it by herself. Though after she sits back, she rubs her arms and says she’s going to take a small break so she can recover her strength.

And that’s fine; that’d actually be the smart thing to do, and he tells her just that. After she’s set her rod aside, Noct then casts out another line, and watches as it hits the water.

He can feel her gaze on him as he sits there quietly, lightly spinning the reel at times. He’s pretty sure that anyone else would be bored to death while watching him fish, and even Prom, for all his understanding of the prince’s hobby, can’t keep watching him for long. He would often mention how he’d rather do some King’s Knight while Noct was busy with fetching dinner, even though he rarely ever did so. Even Ignis with his infinite patience often stated Noct had fished enough, and that was saying something.

And yet this little girl continues to watch him quietly, as interested now as she had been when they’d started hours ago. He’s not sure if it’s just because she’s just as crazy about fishing as he is, but she doesn’t seem to care at all how long she has to sit there in order to see something happen.

As time continues to pass them by, for a moment, his thoughts go back to the earlier conversation he’d escaped back at the camp; the part about him having kids before long. He’s still not sure what he thinks about being a parent, but he’d like to believe that, if he could have a little girl like his ‘guest’, he might not do so bad…

Suddenly, she sighs, almost heavily, and he looks over curiously. When he does, she has a look on her face that he’s seen plenty of times before… in the mirror, when he was lost in thought.

“Are you okay?” Noct asks her, and she tenses a bit at the suddenness of his question, before she looks up to him.

The look on her face isn’t one he’s familiar with… not initially, though. The more he thinks about it, the more he realizes that it’s a look that meant she’d been thinking about something very deeply. Something that was both important and weighed heavy on her mind.

“Uh-huh,” she says, nodding her head as she looks back ahead, hands between her knees and kicking out her feet.

Despite how she says that, he can tell she’s got a lot of things on her mind. And while, normally, he’d never offer to be a listening ear for complete strangers, he’s pretty sure he can make an exception for her. While she’s saying she’s fine (maybe not in so many words), he can tell that she _really_ needs someone to talk to. And likely someone who doesn’t know all of what’s going on in her life. Because, sometimes, that’s just better than talking to someone who knows you inside and out.

“Hey… if you need someone to talk to… I’m willing to listen.”

When she blinks and looks at him, Noct keeps his face as normal as he can, while trying to make it clear he was trying to help her. Not an easy thing to do for him, since he wasn’t normally one for talking, anyway. He doesn’t know how Prompto can look so… well, he’s not sure what the word is, but he can always make Noct want to open up and talk about his problems. Not that he always does talk because of it, mind you, but it makes him _want_ to.

Though would his attempt at the look be enough to tempt her into talking about it?

If he had to guess, the answer was ‘probably not’.

“It’s nothing really…” she mumbles softly as she looks away.

“Okay, now I use that myself a lot, and every time I do, it’s not ‘nothing’, princess,” Noctis chuckles, before both of them freeze up in surprise. “Ah Six! That… that just came out. Sorry ‘bout that…”

Noctis almost wants to sigh as she looks at him as he rubs his neck. He doesn’t even know _why_ he called her ‘princess’, of all things… maybe because he’d heard it on one of those cheesy shows Prom had often watched back in Insomnia, where a father had actually called his daughter ‘his little princess’, or something. It’s not really a condescending nickname, he supposes, but he can understand if she doesn’t enjoy being called that…

After a moment more of just sitting there, she turns away from him and looks down at the water quietly.

“…my auntie’s trying to find me a mom…”

At those sudden words, Noctis blinks in genuine surprise. He hadn’t been expecting her to speak up on the matter at all, given that, even though they got along well, they were still relative strangers. He wouldn’t have been surprise if she’d flat out refused to speak of the matter, so hearing her speak up was a bit surprising.

More surprising, though, were the words she’d spoken.

“Huh…? Why would she do that?”

“…because she thinks I need a mom…”

Noctis isn’t sure what to think of those words. He tries to piece the whole thing together, trying to make sense of why that would matter to anyone, or, hell, why someone would need to _find_ a mom for someone in the first--…

And then his own situation hits him and he understands.

 “…That’s a load of hogwash.”

Noct’s pretty sure she hadn’t been expecting him to say that, since she’s looking at him with wide, surprised eyes.

“No offense meant to your aunt, but who’s she to decide what you _need_? If you don’t want a mom and you’re happy enough with just your dad, then who’s she to say you need to have a mom?”

It takes her a little bit to digest those words, but Noctis can tell when she finally realizes what it was he just said, as her face breaks into a smile.

“Really…?”

“Really-really,” he says with a warm smile, and her own smile grows in turn.

“So, it’s not… bad I don’t want a mom…?”

“Well, if it was… than I’d be going through the same thing as you,” Noctis admits just then.

Noct isn’t sure what possessed him to speak those words, and the look of confusion on the little girl’s face was certainly not unexpected. Now that he thinks a little more about it, this might not be the best topic to discuss with a girl her age. Then again, in her situation, maybe it was something she needed/wanted to hear. The knowledge that she’s not the only one in the world going through problems with parents she may or may not have (again).

And that’s why he kept talking, regardless.

“I don’t really remember my mother… I… lost her when I was even younger than you are now,” he admits, as he moves his fishing rod to the side. “My father didn’t talk about her often, either… probably because he missed her so much. I think he was afraid he would break out into tears if he talked about her too long.”

The small girl stares at him in surprise and, for a long time, she doesn’t say anything, but then she looks at him with a look that’s both sad and understanding.

“Was she… was she nice?”

“She was… Much as I don’t remember of her, I _do_ remember that, at least. My dad would tell me I looked like her a lot, but everyone else keeps saying I’m like him, so I’m not sure what to believe.”

“Don’t you have pictures? Dad has a lot of pictures! And he’s always making new ones!”

That makes Noctis laugh. “He does, huh? Reminds me of a friend of mine… he’s good at it, too. Maybe even the best around.”

“Nuh-uh! Dad’s the best of the best!”

“Oh, is he? I beg to disagree…”

“He is!!”

“Uh-huh. Sure.”

“…RAR!!”

“Wha—WHOA!!”

Noct yowls as he is suddenly on his back with the small girl on his stomach. When she grins down at him, he smirks up at her.

“Oh, that’s it!”

And then he lunges forward and they both burst out laughing as he starts to tickle her mercilessly.

 

After almost ten full minutes of this, the pair finally sits back to talk a little more. Their initial fishing objective has been completely forgotten in favor of them simply talking. They talk about everything and nothing; their likes and dislikes, but mostly about their family.Even without as much knowledge about his mother, Noct considered the guys to be just as much a family. Heck, he’d always kind of considered Ignis to be a big brother ever since their initial meeting, anyway. And when the girl brings up (by accident, he’s sure) the fact that she has both a “Dad” and a “Papa”. She’d clearly been expecting him to be less accepting than he is, so he quickly makes sure to reassure her. He absently brings up the fact that he’d be a hypocrite if it were to bother him, but he’s not sure she understood that part.

Which, eventually, leads back to her aunt trying to get her Dad hooked up with a woman to get her a mom… and then it switches to her trying to get the girl to wear dresses when she really doesn’t want to.

“No offense to your auntie, but she sounds a bit pushy,” Noctis says after the girl admits that she hates wearing dresses, but that her aunt kept trying to get her to wear dresses.

“Kinda…” the girl says as she shrugs her shoulders. “But… she’s family and… I know she really means well… maybe…”

Noctis laughs. “You don’t sound so sure…” he says, which earns him a pout, making him chuckle. “But yeah, I know what you mean… my… brother can also be pushy. Especially when it comes to vegetables.”

“Bleh… I dun like veggies… but I have to eat them or Dad doesn’t let me have meat…”

“Really? Wow… that’s kinda mean…”

“Kinda… but then Dad makes me a volcano.”

“Volcano?”

“Uh-huh. He mashes potatoes and veggies and makes a mountain with it. Then he makes a hole in the top and puts the gravy in.”

“Ooooohhh, I see. Huh… interesting…”

“Uh-huh. And if you put some more potatoes in there, you don’t taste the veggies as much!”

“Hmm… might have to try that sometime…”

The girl giggles, and Noctis smiles in turn. It takes a few moments for the conversation to pick up again, though, but when it does, it’s with a completely different subject.

“Man… all this talking is reminding me of the talks I’ve had with my best friend…”

“Your photo friend?”

“Hahah. Yeah, him.”

“You’re best-best friends?”

“Hmhmm. We’ve been friends for years, and I like to believe he’s my best friend of everyone.” And maybe something more, but this little girl doesn’t need to know all that…

“Must be nice.”

“Yeah, it is…”

“…I wish I had someone like that…

Noctis frowns sadly at the girl’s expression, but rather than say something, he merely smiles and ruffles her hair, which makes her yip.

“Don’t worry; sometimes it takes a bit, but I’m sure you’ll have your own best friend before long.”

“…really?”

“Yeah, for sure.”

For a few moments, Noct’s almost afraid he’s said the wrong thing in this situation (because that’d be just like him), but then she smiles. “Thank you, Mister!”

“You’re very welcome, little miss.”

Noctis is sure she’s about to say something else, but whatever it is, she doesn’t get to speak as she looks back suddenly. And when her eyes widen, he looks back as well, and he immediately spots the black furry limb.

“Hey! Those are mine!” she cries as she scrambles over and reaches inside to pull the little cat out.

The small black kitty mewls as it’s lifted out of the bucket, its claws still clinging to one of the fish. It doesn’t seem disturbed at being picked up, likely because it still has the fish it was going for. The little girl pouts a bit unhappily, but Noct frowns as he takes in the small kitten.

“Don’t be too hard on the little guy,” he says, and when she looks at him, he continues. “He’s pretty skinny… he probably hasn’t had anything to eat for a while.”

That makes her eyes go wide, before realization hits and she looks down to the kitten as it starts to eat the fish. Well, maybe not “kitten”, really. Its eyes are open, so it has to be at least a few weeks, but it’s still a very little cat… so Noct figures that perhaps “kitten” is still the correct term to use in this case.

“…where’s his Mommy, you think?” she asks after a moment.

“I don’t know…” he admits softly, reaching out to lightly scratch it behind its ear. “He… might not have one anymore… if he’s here alone…”

Silence befalls them for a few moments, but finally, the girl smiles softly. “So… now there’s three of us, huh?”

Noctis blinks, but then he smiles when he realizes what she means. “Heh… yeah, there are.”

They spend almost 20 minutes simply petting and feeding the kitty, and when the little guy’s finally had enough, it goes to happily curl up and nap in the little girl’s lap, much to her enjoyment. However, when she looks down at her bucket, she pouts.

Noctis looks to the bucket, and he quickly realizes what’s got her so depressed; she’s just given most of her fish to the kitty, leaving her with only a few fish to take back home with her.

“I see… want me to get you some extra to take home?”

The sudden question makes her look up at him curiously. He smiles at her, though, as he stands up and pulls out something from his pocket. He pulls out the Big Blaze Bahamut lure from his pocket, smiling as his fingers run along the scaled surface. He attaches it to his rod, and then, as he stands, he arches his arm and then casts his line out again.

It plops down on the water, and for several long moments, the only movement is Noct flicking the reel on occasion. And then, after only a few moments, there was a tug on the line.

“Gotcha!” Noct laughs as he starts to work the rod to get the fish to shore. He hears the girl squealing and cheering, while she’s clearly trying not to jostle the kitty.

After only five minutes, Noctis pulls a Dark Allural Sea Bass up from the water and the girl smiles in awe. “Wowie! So big!!”

“Yep.” Smiling, Noct walks over and passes it to her. “Think you can get this one home alone, later? Or want me to help you get it home?”

Noctis watches as her gaze shifts to the fish. He can almost see the gears turning in her head to figure out if she could actually move it alone. And in the end…

“…can you help me, Mister?”

“Hahah. Sure. Lemme just tell my friends I’ll be back later…”

Noctis reaches into his pocket to pull out his phone and he quickly unlocks it. It takes him only a few moments to get to the number he was looking for, before he puts it to his ear. It takes only a moment for the other side to pick up.

“Hey, Specs. Listen, I ran into a lost kid here. I’m gonna get her home real quick and then I’ll come back to camp, kay?”

 “ _Alright, Noct. Do try not to attract the attention of Niflheim, though._ ”

“Yes, _Mom_ ,” Noctis chuckles out.

 “ _Mum’s the word._ ”

After hanging up, he looks to the girl, and he smiles at her confusion. “He worries a lot… so I sometimes call him ‘Mom’, as a joke.”

“Oooooh! Okay!”

After a small bout of giggling and/or chuckling, Noct reaches down and lifts up the supplies he can, including the fish he’d caught for the little girl. Once he has everything settled, he looks to the girl as she leads the way, with Umbra trailing behind lazily. When he looks to the girl, she’s still holding onto the kitten, lightly petting it as they go. He smiles a little bit when she looks up, and she smiles back up at him.

And absently, he can’t help but hope that, when he _did_ have kids, eventually, he could have a daughter just like her.

Finally, they reach what he assumes is familiar territory for the girl, because she’s smiling brightly. “It’s over there!” she chirps, pointing.

“Good,” he says with a smile.

Before either of the two have the opportunity to say anything else, though, a third voice calls out.

“Ooooy!! Regiiiii!!”

The sudden call startles Noct almost to the point where he drops everything, but he somehow holds onto everything. Which is when he spots the girl smiling widely. “Terry!!” she shouts as another girl comes jogging over.

The redhead immediately caught Noct’s attention with one particular thing; she had a prosthetic leg, and yet she was moving as easily as anyone else. He had seen a few people like that in Insomnia, but he’d never seen anyone who could move as well as she did. Which was actually rather impressive. “Was in the neighborhood and figured I’d come see ya, but your Pa said you were out fishing again!”

“In the neighborhood?? You live in Lestallum!”

“…So what’s your point?”

The exchange makes Noctis chuckle softly, which in turn has the girl looking up curiously. He shakes his head softly, still smiling, before he turns to her friend.

“Say, can I ask you something?”

“Huh??”

“Can you help your friend with getting this stuff home?” he asks her, gesturing for all the girl’s gear and the fish he’s still carrying. “She’s got her hands full right now.”

“Yeah I noticed…” the girl mumbles before she grins. “Sure!”

Noctis smiles as he watches the girl take over the gear and the fish, and he can't help but be impressed with her strength. “Wow… you're pretty strong, aren't you?”

“No duh! I'm gonna be a hunter one-a these days! So I gotta build up!” the redhead quips with a big grin and Noct laughs a bit.

“Good on you,” he says with a nod. “Well, good luck on that.”

“Thanks!” is the quick, hyper response, before the girl hurries off.

As she hurries off, the younger girl watches her carry the huge fish over her shoulder. As he watches her, though, he notices she has this look on her face… one that says she has a lot on her mind. So, acting on instinct, Noctis crouches down so he can look at her better.

“Hey… you okay?” he asks her.

“…” She doesn’t answer right away; she only bites her lip for a brief moment. But then… “…Hey, Mister?”

“Yeah?”

“…do you think I can catch a fish that big someday?”

Noctis tilts his head briefly, before he smiles. “Yeah, sure. I don’t see why not. …in fact…” He pauses to reach into his pocket, and he then pulls out the Big Blaze Bahamut lure. “Here.”

Her eyes widen in alarm. “Huh…?”

“Go ahead; take it.”

“But… but that’s yours, Mister!”

“I know… and now I’m giving it to you.”

She hesitates, looking back and forth between him and the lure. But, finally, she reaches out and takes the lure in her hand.

“…thank you, Mister…”

“You’re welcome, little miss.” He reaches out then and turns her around. “Now go on. Your Dad’s probably waiting for you.”

She blinks a bit, before she smiles warmly. Then she nods her head and starts heading off. “Thank you, mister! See you again, kay?!”

He laughs warmly as he waves at her. “Sure thing. Let’s fish again sometime.”

Noctis chuckles as she giggles and hurries off after her friend. Once he’s sure that she’ll be okay, he gets up and starts heading back, before the others start getting worried. Thankfully, it doesn’t take long for him to get back, and Ignis is first to spot him. He nods and adjusts his glasses, and Noct nods back as he hops onto the haven’s glowing marks.

Prompto spots him then from where he’s been taking pictures of the sea, and he grins as he hops up and comes over, patting him on his back. It lasts a little longer than it probably should, a quiet message to tell him more than he is with just words. “Hey buddy! So heard ya met some girl out by the sea?”

The prince snorts with a small smirk as he shakes his head. “Not in the way _you’re_ implying. She came by to fish, and hey, there were some good fish.”

This makes Gladio chuckle jovially. “Really? Sure you didn’t make up some girl wanting to fish? I ain’t seen any girls as of yet that like to fish.”

“Think what you will,” Noctis points out as he takes his seat. “…But you know what?”

“What?” his Shield chuckles out.

“I think… I might not be completely impossible with kids,” he admits.

“Ooooh! Nice!” Prompto laughs. “So… any ideas on names for first born, then?”

Where did _that_ question suddenly come from, anyway? However, Noctis merely chuckles as he remembers the little girl. He doesn’t know what her name was, but if he had to guess, he’s pretty sure it would be a name befitting her. As he sits there, thinking back, he realizes that, despite her casual appearance, her casual stance, she did appear to have some sort of… regal upbringing.

Regal… like a queen or princess.

“If it’s a boy… not sure… but if it’s a girl… I’d like to call her Regina.”

“Regina? Like… ‘Queen’?”

“Wow… how original.”

“Bite me,” Noct grumbles, making Gladio chuckle with a smirk, but Noct doesn’t care.

He’s more than satisfied with the name, and he hopes that if he _does_ have a daughter, she’ll be able to channel some of his new friend’s enthusiasm.

**Author's Note:**

> Oh if only you knew, Noct! XD


End file.
